On June 28,
the Senate Committee on Appropriations marked up its version of the Labor-HHS
appropriations bill.

The Senate’s
Labor-HHS bill provides a total of $181.2 billion in discretionary budget
authority—$2.2 billion more than the 2018 appropriated level, including $90.1
billion for HHS (a $2.3 billion increase) and $71.4 billion for the Department
of Education (a $541 million increase).

The bill
provides $39.1 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an increase
of $2 billion from last year’s appropriated level and $4.5 billion above the
President’s budget. The increase includes an additional $425 million for
Alzheimer’s disease research for a total of $2.34 billion. It also includes
increases of $29 million for the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative
Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative and $37 million for research to combat
antimicrobial resistance. Every NIH institute and center receives increased
funding to support investments that advance science and speed the development
of new therapies, diagnostics and preventive measures, improving the health of
all Americans.

As part of
the targeted funding to address the opioid epidemic, the bill adds $105 million
for the National Health Service Corps and expands loan repayment eligibility
requirements to include substance use disorder counselors.

The Senate bill
maintains or increases a range of programs that help students prepare for, succeed
in and pay for college, including $350 million to continue the discretionary
relief fund for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), created in the FY18
Omnibus appropriations law. This initiative corrects a flaw in the mandatory PLSF
program that has caused teachers and other public servants to be ineligible for
forgiveness even though they are the intended beneficiaries of PSLF.

The Senate’s
defense funding bill provides $607.1 billion in Department of Defense funding, including $34.5 billion for the Defense Health
Program, which provides medical services for military personnel and their
families, continues advancements in medical research and implements the next
generation of electronic health records. This amount includes an additional
$974 million for defense medical research efforts.

Please check
our website, where we
will shortly post a more complete memorandum with a
detailed comparison of the House and Senate Labor-HHS appropriations bills.